Spring receives recognition for duel clarinet playing

Robert Spring, a music professor in ASU's Herberger Institute School of Music, has learned how to play two clarinets at once, a feat that required months of training and left the veteran clarinetist with brand-new calluses on his long-hardened lips.

"It's easy to become a museum piece as a musician," says Spring. "My desire is not to be the tenured professor who people look at and say, 'I hope he retires soon.' I want to move music in a new direction."

Spring says the hardest part is playing the parts of the song that call for just one clarinet when you've got two instruments in your mouth.

"What you end up doing is putting your tongue on one of the reeds to stop it from vibrating while blowing into the other one," Spring says. "It has taken an incredible amount of work to develop the coordination to do this."